Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2205: Pair

Sylas honestly couldn't believe what he was seeing, but there was no mistaking it. Although she looked darker than he remembered—not just in skin tone, but aura as well—and she also had wings as black as night, and a gaze without a hint of the kindness he recalled… He was sure.

That was Nosphaleen.

It couldn't have been anyone else.

The people cheered. The men beat their chests and the women raised their children high as though to get a better look at the statue that they all called their own.

Many had already noticed Sylas' presence, but it was as though they didn't care at all. They were busy celebrating, busy celebrating their Goddess for having granted them a new world to conquer.

The journey to their next world often took the lives of many. The universe was treacherous and too many of their number were unbelievably weak. During the journey, many often died.

But seeing such a suitable world appear right across from them, they knew that their God was looking over them. How could they not be happy?

Even if some of them died to these invaders, that wouldn't be the fault of their God.

They were a people who knew how to be happy and grateful for what they had.

Sylas stood in silence as he watched this, his tan coat dancing in the harsh winds of the desert. The pelting particles of earth hit against his skin, threatening to leave rough marks across his flesh, but he didn't seem to notice at all, his gaze still focused ahead.

He never took his eyes off the statue. Gazing at that beautiful, familiar face, he couldn't help but wonder just what had happened for it to come to this.

Just what was he seeing here?

At that moment, a man walked out from the depths of the village and they all grew quiet.

Sylas didn't take his eyes off of Nosphaleen, but he sensed the man without a shadow of a doubt.

He radiated the might of a B-tier Race and the aura of a man A-tier in strength.

If one were to line up all of Sylas' opponents, he technically wouldn't even be the strongest. After all, Sylas had killed Gods—actual Gods before. He could still hear the screams of the Hydra even now.

But in terms of people he would have to face one on one, to decide life and death with his own skill…

This man was the strongest.

A Demi-God, a true one.

The man's marking radiated with black light, everywhere he stepped, his people cleared a path forward for him, their gazes staring at him with respect.

He stopped near Nosphaleen's statue, falling to both his knees and then slamming his forehead to the ground.

Once he was finished, he rose to his feet, not even bothering to clear the sand that covered his face out of the way as he turned to face Sylas.

BOOM.

The man left a trench in his wake as he soared up high into the skies. A spear appeared in his hands and he thrust down with the might of a bolt of lightning.

Sylas reached out a finger and the entire planet shuddered.

Chi.

Sylas' finger met the spear, what looked like black lightning dancing wildly at their contact point as though wind was blowing it back toward Sylas.

The man grinned. "The Efivara God has sent us a great challenge on this day! I will feast on your flesh!"

The black light in the man's markings flashed once more and a radiant death energy pooled out from him. He sucked up more strength from the earth and his wrist twisted.

The blade snaked forward and past Sylas' finger, trying to cut his entire wrist off.

Sylas was still too unfamiliar with Death Runes. Using them to erode was pretty straightforward, but building up a robust method of attack, defense, and movement was completely different.

For one, he had to give up on movement entirely. It wasn't useful, and against an A-tier Demi-God, there was just no way he was going to be able to use his normal methods of movement and make them worthwhile.

If he tried to flicker away in space now, the man would not only sense it, he just might stop it. And that was only if he cared to stop it in the first place.

If Sylas was him, he'd maybe choose to let him teleport away and then gear up an attack. If he chose this latter path, Sylas would be unlikely to be able to mount a defense in time and he would die beneath the blade.

Troublesome, indeed.

But now Sylas was very interested in this Race and how it worked. The trouble was that the Death Seal was only most effective against opponents with dead bloodlines, ones that had fallen by the wayside or were locked away.

However… given the oddity of this bloodline, Sylas couldn't help but wonder if the Death Seal might have some positive effects here… 'Only one way to find out.'

Sylas was forced a step back. The grin of the man grew more wild as he pressed forward, but in that moment, Sylas summoned the Death Seal.

The ground beneath them was suddenly swallowed whole by a complex formation of rotating dark gold. It moved like the complications of an elegantly structured watch. Gears tumbled and rolled, flickering arms and rotating pieces sliding in and out in relation to one another in a beautiful symphony of synchronization.

Sylas exhaled a breath and he felt like his gaze was simply… unlike now.

When he looked at the man across from him, he didn't even see a man any longer, he saw a mass of destruction, a flickering vessel of radiant death energy that seemed to want to swallow everything in its path.

And yet, so much of that was chained and locked away, suppressed and squeezed down beneath the thumb of the world around them.

And then deeper within…

He saw a pair of eyes.

Nosphaleen's eyes.